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Public Records Requests at City of Cleveland

RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST of July 26, 2018, Reference #C001198-072618.

Dear Laura McShane,

The City of Cleveland received a public record request from you on July 26, 2018. You requested the following:

“I am requesting the 2018-2019 budgets submitted by all CLE City councilpersons. This would include expenditures allocated through the CDBG funds, NDA allocations, Casino funds and any other funds available to each ward.

Thank you in advance for this information.”

The City has reviewed its files and has located responsive records to your request. Please log in to the Cleveland Public Records Center at the following link to retrieve the appropriate responsive documents.

City - Public Records Request - C001198-072618

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If you have any questions, or wish to discuss this further, you can reply to this email, go to the Cleveland Public Records Center and Send a New Message or call 216-664-2772.

Cleveland got $31.6 million in block grant dollars from HUD in 2000. Look at the ordinance from that year authorizing the director to apply for it. Poverty's higher in the city than ever and we're entitled to between $40 million and $50 million annually because of the number of below-the-poverty-line residents. The block grant allocation for 2018 was about $19 million. We've lost over $12 million in HUD funding because council in 2000 decided it was smart to split the $30 million equally between the wards. The act wasn't legal. HUD's been cutting our allocations annually since 2000 because the money's been spent illegally.

HUD dollars are allocated to cities based on the number and level of poverty and the amount of slum and blight in a census tract. A "census tract" is a configuration of blocks. When the threshold of poverty for people living in a census tract reaches 60 percent the federal government sends money to help. We all know where the low-income "census tracts" are in Cleveland. They're not in University Circle, Westpark, Clifton, Lake Avenue, Detroit Shoreway. So the idea that Councilman Martin Keane in Westpark is entitled to the same amount of block grant money as Kevin Bishop in Ward 2 is insane. What's more important is that Jackson is prohibited by federal laws from allowing dollars allocated for poor census tracts to be spent in census tracts that don't qualify for block grant dollars.

This shit came about in 2000 when Michael R. White served as mayor and Michael D. Polensek served as council president. Polensek and the council were on this "everybody's equal" bullshit because none of them had ever read the federal laws that "dictate" how and how not block grant dollars are to be spent.

Linda Hudecek was Mike's director of community development. I think I'd joined his administration as a special assistant by the time this was on the table. Mike and Linda told council the equity split bullshit was unlawful. They passed it anyway. To his credit Frank Jackson voted against it. So did Jay Westbrook.

Afterwards council created this illegal scheme to individually control how the dollars were spent. When I write "illegal" I mean it. This is true racketeering and they don't know it or how it's been hurting the city with the annual loss of dollars.

I've shared the general law before that limits the authority of a member of council. It's found in R.C. 731.05 and reads as follows:

"731.05 Powers of legislative authority. The powers of the legislative authority of a city shall be legislative only, it shall perform no administrative duties ..."

Read the next words carefully.

"All contracts requiring the authority of the legislative authority for their execution shall be entered into and conducted to performance by the board or officers having charge of the matters to which they relate. After the authority to make such contracts has been given and the necessary appropriation made, the legislative authority shall take no further action thereon."

If you read Ord. No. 135 - 2000 I've shared in the image you'll see where the council is giving the director of community development the authority to apply for accept grants from HUD that requires the city to enter a grant agreement with the federal government. A grant agreement is a contract and you'll see where after a contract is entered "the legislative authority shall take no further action thereon" because contract management is an "administrative duty."

What council has done, illegally, since 2000 is to divide the money equally and require individuals seeking block grant money to appeal to them individually for it. They then sign a "contract" or "pledge" with "the city" or "administration" to distribute the money to the non-profits of their choice that they're alleged to "control."

The entire process is sham and so are all the so-called documents associated with it. They weren't created or authorized by any "federal" law. The Office of Management & Budget Circulars define what expenses are allowed and not with federal funds. No one in the Jackson administration has read them.

So what HUD did over the years was reduce Cleveland's block grant allocation by $12 million. What they're also doing is criminally-investigating the CDC players and city officials connected to them through HUD's office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Treasury and the FBI.

HUD requires each "direct entitlement" city that receives block grant funds to create an annual action plan or Consolidated Plan that's discussed in public with the public and outlines each year's block grant funded activity with public comments. The Action Plan then determines how the money, locally and with public input, will be allocated.

So the idea that HUD accepted an action plan that said one thing, and that shit was trashed because councilmembers are being appealed to individually by anybody who asks, HUD's officials have said "hold the fuck up." Cleveland's "consolidated plan" hasn't been updated since 2016 and that's another federal law violation and a reason to reduce the city's block grant allocation by over $12 million. Council has been running an illegal "bait and switch" scheme on HUD and we're losing.

I'm going to reiterate that only 15 percent of the $19 million the city currently gets can go to CHDO's like the criminal enterprise HUD's poverty money thieves call CDC's. That's the federal law cap. That's now Cleveland's cap and another reason we've been reduced by over $12 million since 2000.

Here's what's in the possession of "the Feds" already. Every illegal signed agreement between the members of council and the individuals and non-profits to whom they pledged block grant dollars. Every one of their signatures is on these fraudulent documents in violation of R.C. 731.05 that told them after a contract is entered they're out of it.

Here's a word of warning to every member of Cleveland city council. From the completion of your reading what I've just written, if you accept another request from another person and sign a contract, you are creating a criminal tool and adding another count in your indictment. You mutha fuckas had better "run" from the CDC's. For those who are deeply involved with the CDC's. You're already caught. That "Joe Cimperman" shit about buying pussy with block grant money ain't over.

Let me tell you how I handled my council. One of them approached me, Barbara Thomas, with a request for block grant money to be used to promote a concert like the one Zack Reed does. She'd created a non-profit and wanted to charge for the show and keep the money with her non-profit. She and council's deputy clerk were on the non-profit's board and were also seeking federal Weed & Seed money.

First I told her "hell no" on the concert and asked if she thought I was stupid. I'd already managed the city's community development department in 1998 while served the mayor as chief of staff. I told her "no" on the Weed & Seed, too, and then sent a letter to the U.S. Marshall and U.S. Attorney informing them the city would not apply through the councilwoman's non-profit; and not to accept any application from the non-profit.

Council. Your only authority is to attend meetings of council and vote. All this CDC shit done already got y'all on the FBI, HUD Inspector General and IRS radar. Leave the CDC's alone. It's up to the mayor to manage them. It's up to you to investigate the mayor and his administration when they don't manage them.

You do not have any legal authority under any Ohio law to involve yourselves with the management of federal block grant dollars and you're fucking over the real poor people of this town for losing us $12 million a year. The "Feds" are investigating. Are y'all crazy?